Chicago Condo Directory

February 11, 2010 - If you’ve been interested in purchasing a Chicago condo at the Legacy then now may be the time. There are some flipper units available now, and you can get those for less than the developer units that are left at this Chicago real estate project. The Legacy is located at 60 East Monroe Street in Millennium Park.

Right now there are some one bedroom, one bath secondary market condos at the Legacy advertised in the $370,000s. A few more one bedroom, 1.5 bath condos are being marketed for between the $420,000s and $450,000s.

In contrast, the developer is selling similar 925 to 1,189 square foot one bedroom units in the $480,000s. Or you can opt for one of the much larger, more expensive three bedroom penthouse condos at the Legacy for around $4.26 million. Those units have over 4,300 square feet.

The develper has also been marketing 1,969 to 2,930 square foot three bedroom, three bath condos at the Legacy for around $1.15 million to $2.59 million. The remaining 1,429 to 1,596 square foot two bedroom, two bath units are listed around the $640,000s to $1 million.

When you’re looking for Chicago condos for sale, it often pays to check out the secondary market as well. Some investors are forced to sell at a slight loss, so that could be your gain.

Technorati Tags: The Legacy, Chicago Condos For Sale, Chicago Real Estate

February 10, 2010 - For the second time this month we have news of a newly planned Chicago real estate development. William Pacella of Pacella Trucking in Bridgeport is trying to get a zoning changed passed that would allow him to construct a 33 story glass tower west of the old post office on northwest corner of Clinton and Harrison, according to a Chicago Journal report. The Committee on Zoning is set to review the request during their scheduled February 24th meeting.

The high-rise will have five lower floors 327 parking spaces and a green roof deck on top of that fifth floor. The deck would be landscaped and have tables, a lounge and fitness room. There will also be a total of 276 Chicago condos in the tower.

Right now the empty lot is used for parking. Mr. Pacella purchased it in 2007 for $5.25 million. The tower would have to comply with the city’s Affordable Housing Ordinance, which means that some units would have to be dedicated to affordable housing or the developer would have to donate funds towards affordable housing somewhere else. The article went on to say that an attorney for Mr. Pacella stated to the Sun Times that construction wouldn’t start for some time, at least until the housing market improved.

It seems as though developers and investors are positioning themselves for a housing market recovery though, if the increase in plans and lot purchases are any indications. But it still may be another two or three years before we see a lot of pre-construction Chicago condos or new construction Condos In Chicago again.

Technorati Tags: Pre-Construction Chicago Condos, Condos In Chicago, Chicago Real Estate

February 9, 2010 - Last week we reminded you of the FHA mortgage rule changes that went into effect recently, including the ban on spot approvals that started February 1st. Now news that FHA loan defaults have increased to more than 9% has a lot of critics of the department doubting if the FHA can continue at its current pace of lending if defaults continue to rise.

In a recent Wall Street Journal report, the rate of FHA loan defaults rose to 9.12% at the end of December ‘09. A year ago the same reporting period the default rate was 6.82%. The total number of loans that FHA insured in 2009 was 5.8 million with a dollar value of $752.6 billion. That was up 24% from a year ago, according to the article.

But FHA representatives claim that new loans are going to put the agancy back in black despite the rise in loan defaults. The logic behind that is the higher credit scores of most new borrowers. Iin 2008 the average score was 661 and for 2009 it was 694. Another change is the increase in loan insurance fees that the FHA will require. The upfront fee will go from 1.75% up to 2.25% of the loan total and the yearly fee will increase from 0.5% to 0.55% of the loan amount, according to the article. They then want to raise the annual premium to 0.85% to 0.90% but then lower the upfront fee back down to 1%.

Shaun Donovan, Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary was quoted as saying that, “We thought it was a better long term strategy to increase the annual premium.”

Again, we’ll have to see how or if these changes impact sales of Chicago condos or Chicago real estate in general.

Technorati Tags: FHA Mortgage, Chicago Condos, Chicago Real Estate